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Show BRITISH GASMAN TELLS OF WORK Graphic Account of Corps " Which "Doctors Germans With Their Own Medicine. WIND KEENLY WATCHED Cylinders and Connecting Pipes a Constant Source of Danger From Leakage. London, Aug. 4. (Correspondence the "big squeeze" began discussion of British gas attacks was strictly prohibited pro-hibited but now the tabo has been lifted, lift-ed, and a British "gasman" has been allowed to write a graphic account of the work of his own special corps whose business it is, he says, to doctor doc-tor the Germans with their own medicine." medi-cine." "Behind our lines," he writes, "the sun set in a blaze of glory. A glance over the parapet shows the green and scarlet of the oppied No-Man's land already merging into the gray mists of twilight; but 150 yards away, like a brown earth shadow among the grays, hangs the rusty barbed wire of the enemy and just beyond a white, chalky upthrow marks his front line trench. The gasmen stars across the silent shadows at that white line and for a momont they think of the choky, gurgling cough of the men who die by gas. It is not pleasant to die by gas. "'Connect up!' The order comes down the line from one bay of the trench to another, and the gasmen immediately get gusy. The front rows of neatly piled sandbags of which each fire-step Is apparently solidly built are pulled out and disclose a cavity in which show, black and ominous, the cowled heads of a row of Iron cylinders. They are sunk in pits well 'bagged up' to protect them from possible crack or puncture by flying fragment or dlcochettlng bullet. Each cylinder weighs about 130 pounds and contains sufficient compressed com-pressed gas, if it could be used without with-out waste, to put an entire company out of action. "On top of the cylinders lies a tangle tan-gle of flexible connecting pipes, three and four woy joints, spigots, and screw-Jet, and upon these, with spanner span-ner and key, the gasmen start work. The cylinders are all connected up in series, and nothing remain but to throw the Jets over the top of the parapet and open the valves in order to release the deadly fumes. Wind Keenly Watched. "But something Is required to carry the gas over to the German lines a favoring breeze and never did sailor scan the sky more intently than the gasmen watch their little, Inconspicuous Inconspicu-ous wind guages, fixed to the edge of a trench. They must have a wind of a certain direction, and they prefer it of a certain strength. On this occasion, oc-casion, the direction Is satisfactory enough, but the breeze shows signs of weakness, and occasionally falls to a mere, almost imperceptible zephyr. "When not watching the wind, the gasmen are watching their pipes; repeatedly re-peatedly feeling and testing evory Inch of tube and joint; for none know better than thoy the danger of leakage leak-age and of the escape of gas into their own trenches. Perslstenly an officer passed down the line, casting rapid though keen glances as he goes at each set of cylinders and their connecting con-necting pipes. And in every bay ho pauseB and whispers two words to tho corporal in charge: 'Eleven o'clock.' But the wind, without which tho gas will not reach the enemy's trench and do its deadly work among Ub occupantB, begins to peter out. u a 4. ?on sPcclaI Respirators. At ton-fifty the gasmen don their special respirators, which in the dim "ght, give the wearers a strange, almost al-most Inhuman appearance. Masked I and goggled, with weird, trunk-like pleceB of hose running from the mouthpiece to the box of alr-purifylng chemicals strapped to their chests, they look like some of tho unearthly beings who people the books of Mr. H. G. Wells. "But not a breath disturbs tho still air. T,he feeble breeze has died completely. com-pletely. Hurriedly the order runs down tho line: 'Cancel, and stand by.' Behind their masks tho gasmen grunt disgustedly. . But suddenly crack! crack!! rat-a-tat! rat-a-tat-tat!! The orders to the infantry have not been countermanded, and tho quiet of the night Is roughly shattered by a long line of viciously crackling rifles and Lewis guns to which the Germans reply. "The gasmen move about uneasily. It is not for themselves they fear, but for those pipes any cylinder heads lying bare and exposed to the hall of flying fragments. Well, they know the danger of bursts aid of trenches filled with gas and no wind to move It. But they cannot 'bag up' without orders, and so they detail one of their number in each bay to watch the cylinders cyl-inders while the rest gather behind the traverse, as being a slightly safer spot. "When day breaks a fair wind is blowing, straight towards tho German trenches. But, o course. It is now broad daylight, and the gas will be vlsibleis soon as It leaves the pipes. The gasmen know what to expect. They know that as soon as the greenish-gray clouds appear outside their parapet there will be running messengers messen-gers and hurried telephoning In the German llneB. They know that within a few minutes the word will have reached the German big guns at the mack, and that every piece capable of flattening out a parapet and burying them, mangled and broken, among their own cylinders will be concentrated concen-trated upon the front line trench In which they stand. Green Poison Fog. "Time! Over the top tho jet-pipes are flung, and then, simultaneously along almost two miles of trench, there arises a sibilant hiss, as of some monstrous and venomous snake suddenly sud-denly aroused from slumber. Now the gasmen are working frantically with wheel and spanner and key, and the hiss increases In shrillness and volume. vol-ume. Outside the parapet the green poison fog is already spreading like a toul blanket over No-Man's land. Carried ceaselessly forward its outer edge Is rapidly approaching the German Ger-man trenches, into which it will presently pres-ently sink, spreading agony and death among those who cannot escape, i "No rifle or machine gun fire has been ordered this time, and from either eith-er line scarcely a sound Is heard except ex-cept the deadly hiss of the escaping fumes. The minutes pass in tense, ominous quiet. Nature herself seems to all aghast to watch this latest devilry dev-ilry practiced by her children upon one another. "Behind their masks the gasmen begin to be the more freely, and then suddenly, on the left, 'Crash! And 'crash' again, and yet again. This time on the right, somewhere close at hand. The men crouch lower over their cylinders, the explosions follow one another almost too rapidly to count, and In any case their minds are no longer fitted to count or care. Only the valves must bo turned, and the pipes .must be watched, and the sudden spurt of vapor which marks a leak must be checked by the application appli-cation of a handful of mud, which the gas Itself Immediately freezes Into an Iron-hard and Impenetrable mass. Men and Cylinders Buried. ' "In one of the bays, the parapet rocks suddenly and -falls forward, burying the men and their cylinders. Almost Immediately the men scramble out unhurt; but the pipes are broken, and the gas is filling the trench. With spanner and mud the thing Is stopped, new connections are rigged up, and the death vapor is again directed outside out-side what is left of the trench. But one of men has had the mouthpiece of his respirator broken, and already he Is coughing and choking painfully. 'I've got it!,' he gasps hoarsely, and goes behind the traverse to suck a ammonia ampule and die slowly. "Closing-up time! Rapidly the valves are shut down, the jet pipes withdrawn and plugged and stacked away. Feverishly the men work at bagging up their cylinders again. Im-perturably Im-perturably a sergeant stalks down the ruined and battered trench, shepherding shepherd-ing his flock towards their dugout He is an old-timer a transfer from the infantry and he scarcely quivers as a shell bursts behind a traverse he has just left. Quietly he directs two of the men to carry an unconscious uncon-scious case to the nearest point of the communication trench where stretcher-bearers may be found. "In the dug-out, with the shells still pounding overhead, the section's roll is called. Most of the men answer to their names. Some are answered by comrades as wounded and for others no one answers at all. "But over In tho German trenches hundreds of men are choking and gasping In agony for an hour before they can. They have been made to quaff their own medicine." nn |